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13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rafaela Pimenta interview: Sexism in football, the game's ‘hostage' problem and doing the Haaland deal
Rafaela Pimenta is wearing a beige splint over her left wrist. She tore the ligaments in her fingers and thumb playing, ironically enough, football. 'It's so stupid,' she says, understandably frustrated she cannot do daily tasks such as tying up her hair or typing on her laptop and phone. Advertisement But what irks her far more is some people's reaction, even today, when she tells them she is a football agent. As she sat down to see the doctor about her recent hand injury, he asked what she did for work. 'I'm a football agent,' said Pimenta. The doctor stopped writing. 'That's not possible,' he said. That triggers her. 'Why?' she replied. 'But you're a woman?' he said. 'He really said this to me!' Pimenta tells . 'He didn't mean it badly (but) he was looking at me as if I had fallen from space. 'I was so angry. I wanted to tell him: 'Listen, you're sexist!' It was clear he thought I could not do this job. The reason it annoys me is because it shouldn't matter. If it didn't matter, nobody would ask. It means people still judge your worth by your gender as well. In football, it matters and it shouldn't.' Advertisement Pimenta, who has recently become a non-executive director for Women In Football, an organisation that champions female talent to bring about change in attitudes to women working in the industry, is one of football's most influential figures and has previously been described as the most powerful woman in football. Born in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian became a lawyer and taught at several universities before working alongside the late football agent Mino Raiola at their One agency. Today, the company represents some of the sport's biggest names, from Erling Haaland to Arne Slot. They have also delved into women's football and represent three coaches and around 10 athletes — approximately 20 per cent of their client base — including Spanish World Cup Esther Gonzalez and Misa Rodriguez, as well as the talented United States teenager Lily Yohannes. Pimenta believes the game can be a platform for much larger conversations about equality and opportunities for women and wants to use her platform in men's football to further the causes of women's football. Advertisement 'The platform of this company is being used by our female players,' she says. 'When we talk to those in women's football clubs, we come with a history, a track record. I think that is also elevating the space for women. The goal is to give them as much space as possible.' As an agent and lawyer, Pimenta, speaking via video call from her office in Monaco, has witnessed the different landscapes of men's and women's football. 'It is so hard to become a footballer when you're a man,' Pimenta says. 'It is even harder to become a footballer when you're a woman.' Unprompted, Pimenta brings up Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Spanish Football Federation who was found guilty in February of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent during the World Cup final medal presentation. Advertisement 'If I'm a world champion, you have to endure Mr Rubiales kissing you when you're taking your medal and the whole disgrace,' says Pimenta. 'Imagine if Messi just won the World Cup and Infantino (Gianni, the FIFA president) kisses him on the mouth. That's inconceivable. This would never happen. 'When you're a girl or a woman, you need to be scared that this may happen. And if this happens, maybe it also backfires on you. Not only do you have to be abused, but also public opinion will abuse you all over again. 'I am very passionate about it because I want to make them (female players) feel safe, that they can be what they want to be without the added risks of being a woman in this industry.' Pimenta rattles off other issues she wants to address. Advertisement 'I am also speaking out about sexualising women,' she says. 'They are footballers. They are athletes. They are not soccer Barbies. They are not there because they're beautiful. They have great bodies but that's not the point and should not be the point. 'When I follow some social media or the way some people are using the image of women, it goes towards: 'Oh, let's make it sexy.' It's not about being sexy, it's about performance on the pitch. You should feel safe that you're being watched for what you do on the pitch, not for how you look. There's a lot still to conquer in the sense that women need to be safe.' Growing up, Pimenta never perceived sexism in Brazil. But when she came to Europe, it was plain to see. 'I never thought of myself as being inferior to men because that's not how I was raised,' she says. 'If you're good, you're good. If you're not good, you're not good. I would go back home and say: 'They find it weird that I'm a woman. Why does it matter?'. I actually felt the doors were being closed when I got to a place (Europe) where I thought doors would normally be open.' Advertisement As she worked with clubs negotiating clients' contracts, Pimenta realised women did not have a seat at the decision-making table. 'But I saw many women in clubs at the time,' she says. 'They were doing the whole job or a lot of it. They were the men's support system in the decision-making positions but they would not wear the hat. The hat would belong to the men, the credit would go to the men. I thought: 'What's going on here?'' One of the first women she met in football was Marina Granovskaia at Chelsea. 'I found it amazing — this is a normal woman, she's capable and she does what she needs to do. I was always impressed by her because she could break this barrier of sexism that I felt in Europe.' Men have supported her in the industry, though. Pimenta cites Milan's former chief executive Adriano Galliani and, in her words, 'super super agent' Jonathan Barnett as inspirational figures. Despite Barnett being retired, Pimenta still talks to him a lot: 'He was breaking barriers and speaking up for his players.' Advertisement Pimenta previously told that a football director said to her in a meeting, in front of a player and his father, that she is Brazilian so they thought she was a 'hooker'. That incident is etched into her memory. And she says her gender is still 'very relevant' to clients today. 'It matters to players and their families,' she says. 'When you work with the player, there are always 10 people who want to take this player from you.' Pimenta has heard these people saying: 'Yeah, but she's a woman. Are you sure she knows what she's doing? Are you sure she's up to it?' It's people who have never done a transfer in their life.' Pimenta has had players wanting to work with her, only to be pressured to change because she is a woman. Advertisement 'It matters for players, it matters for clubs, it matters for the media. It does matter and it shouldn't. That is the point.' On the flip side, she recently had a female player's father specifically asking for a female agent because that would put his mind at ease. Asked if being a woman in football has helped her in some way, Pimenta says: 'I think so. If you look at the glass half-full, yes. If you look at it half-empty, no.' 'So many women have been mistreated, downplayed, humiliated and abused in this industry that when they see a woman who is doing something at that moment that gives a sense of empowerment, they will help me. Advertisement 'I have had situations of women helping me from inside clubs. They should not have but they did because they were happy to see a woman there. Maybe not because it was me, but probably because they have had so many bad experiences. They want to see a woman succeed. 'I probably shouldn't be saying this but I'm talking about having access to information that you shouldn't have. One time I was leaving a club, I passed by the secretary room because usually the secretary is next door to the decision-maker. The girls are here, the man is there. I'm on the way to the toilet and the secretary says to me: 'Go to the second one. The contract is there.' 'Somebody slips a phone number in my bag when I'm passing by, or they call me to tell me something that they shouldn't. This is girl power.' Pimenta feels her biggest strength is putting her clients' interests first. Advertisement 'From the moment you either think it's about you or your interests, you have lost it,' she says. 'If you think of the client's interests and you make sure the client thinks of football and not about money, everything goes right. I have been doing this for 35 years now. It always does.' A small figurine with blonde hair, a sky blue shirt and the No 9 on its back stands on the corner of her desk. In January, Pimenta struck one of football's most monumental deals and the longest in English football history when Haaland signed with Manchester City for nine-and-a-half years in what Pimenta describes as a 'dream come true'. 'There is the football dream and there is my dream as an agent to do beautiful deals,' she says. 'It took a lot of time to build. From everybody involved: City, the player, family. It's a work of art. At the end I was like: 'What a beauty.' 'We were so happy to achieve this because there was no tension. There was an ambition, there was a will. How do we get there? You would bump into a dead end and another but then let's fix this part, let's add this layer to the document and the discussion.' Advertisement The ambition was always a 10-year deal but the contract had been finally agreed upon at the end of December and, given City announced the deal on January 17, many reported the new deal as lasting nine-and-a-half years. 'It's so annoying to say 'nine-and-a-half years'. But in the end, that's what it was. To put our thoughts and dreams into words, it takes time. Dammit, I wanted to call it 10 years!' Asked why it was so long, Pimenta replies very simply: 'If I want to send you a message that I love you, I marry you. I don't date you. How can you express love bigger than marrying you? 'That was the goal. To express what this partnership with this club really means. If it means something, let's put it on paper and celebrate. Let's be loud about it. We sent a message: we hold hands and we will grow into something that is bigger than it is today. It takes time. There are ups and downs and good and bad moments but we're here for each other.' Advertisement The length of contract had a business angle too. 'If we're able to pass a message to supporters, stakeholders, sponsors, to the ones that who look at this project long-term as something that is planned long-term, it allows everything that comes with it to get organised. That lets us achieve bigger things.' The contract was one of the most lucrative, too, but its exact worth was never disclosed. 'And it never will be,' adds Pimenta. Bubbling away in the background was also the fact City were, and still are, accused of more than 100 breaches of the Premier League's rules. They deny these charges. 'I think that would be a conversation that enters my lawyer hat,' says Pimenta when asked if the charges were discussed during Haaland's negotiations. 'And that's not something we should be talking about.' Advertisement According to Pimenta, there is 'more space for the human being' in the women's game, whereas the men's game treats players purely as assets. 'If you stop being human, you lose the passion,' she says. 'You might as well use robots to play football. If we kill the passion and do it for the money, it's dead. Nobody will watch football anymore.' When Pimenta speaks to a club, it is usually about a transfer, a problem with the coach or the player's physical condition. 'Today, it has become impossible to say to a (men's) club: 'A player needs to be transferred because he's unhappy.' If you're unhappy in your job, this should be the biggest reason for you to leave.' Pimenta is fully aware of the different factors at play: the price, commitment to sponsors, supporters and finding a replacement player who will cost more than a transfer fee. Advertisement But she believes 'a club cannot be sensitive to the players' needs anymore. They used to be. That's when I shout very loudly: we need transfer rules. 'The rules in place today are not good enough. A rule that says a player can have a transfer clause and then a club comes to you and imposes a transfer clause of €1billion (£841m, $1.1bn), this is not a transfer clause. This is just accommodating your request. 'The problem is I'm the only one that is interested in clear rules for transfers. If you're a club, you want to be able to say: 'You leave when I want, you don't leave when you want.' But this is becoming a real problem in football. 'Thirty years ago, if I were to go to a club director or owner and tell him: 'I know you like him and need him but he really needs to leave, his time is over here,' they would find a solution. Today they don't. Advertisement '(A club says): 'This is the price. If you bring me this money, he goes. If you don't, training starts tomorrow.' That's not OK. I know people will say: 'They're well paid, why should they do whatever they want?' That's not the point. 'In my company, I imagine people are well paid. If they come to me and say: 'I want to go because I found a better job, I want to live in another country because my husband or my wife got transferred or my kid has a problem at school and I want to go to another city,' they just go. In football, you're not allowed. This is becoming a big, big problem.' Pimenta thinks this will become more of an issue in women's football as more money enters but, for the time being, clubs are more willing to compromise. 'If we don't get a clear set of transfer rules, this will explode,' she warns. 'What is it? Do you want slaves?' Advertisement Pimenta believes who makes these rules — FIFA, UEFA, the federations, national governments or the clubs — is irrelevant given everybody should be involved in the conversation. 'When we had the (Lassana) Diarra sentence, everybody started to question what happens to the transfer system now. Nobody wants to implode the transfer system. It's part of the game. It needs to exist for this activity to be sustainable for clubs. I understand that but we also need a bit of fresh air in the system to clarify what are the rules of this game, the game of transfers so that the players don't end up as hostages of the clubs. 'As the summer transfer window approaches, I already know players are very nervous: 'I need to leave. I need to leave. I need to leave.' Maybe we end up in the summer, as I've experienced already, with players crying in their home, literally crying because they cannot go. I'm not sure there's enough interest in the football industry to address this matter. 'Money should always be talked about. I don't want you as a club not to make money. I just want balance. I want balance for the player.' Advertisement Football in general has an issue with financial sustainability. And women's football, which is a young growth market, is not immune to that. Pimenta is certain the women's game can be a sustainable, monetising business. 'If the fans are interested, the rest will follow,' she says. Over the years, income has increased but so has debt. There have been concerns that transfer fees and salaries in the women's game are rising while core foundations are yet to be solidified. 'It is fair enough to have this conversation, as long as it is not just a disguise to not increase women's salaries,' says Pimenta. 'Women's football needs to be sustainable. So let's invest in football pitches, the structure, the data but not on the salaries? The girls need to eat. Advertisement 'I understand the need for investment, but please, when you look at the salaries, sometimes you play for a very big club and you can hardly make a living, let alone prepare for the future. 'It's very smart of club owners to make the female players feel guilty about talking about their salaries. Sometimes they can make it look like it's either developing the game or increasing the salaries. Why can the two things not co-exist?' Pimenta continues to question the status quo, whether that be in the men's or women's game. 'If all of us in men's football gave our attention to women's football and shared that space, that would be important. Women's football is a tool to empower girls. If we all make women's football a bigger sport we will be indirectly helping communities and cultural change.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Manchester City, Premier League, UK Women's Football 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Rafaela Pimenta interview: Sexism in football, the game's ‘hostage' problem and doing the Haaland deal
Rafaela Pimenta is wearing a beige splint over her left wrist. She tore the ligaments in her fingers and thumb playing, ironically enough, football. 'It's so stupid,' she says, understandably frustrated she cannot do daily tasks such as tying up her hair or typing on her laptop and phone. But what irks her far more is some people's reaction, even today, when she tells them she is a football agent. As she sat down to see the doctor about her recent hand injury, he asked what she did for work. Advertisement 'I'm a football agent,' said Pimenta. The doctor stopped writing. 'That's not possible,' he said. That triggers her. 'Why?' she replied. 'But you're a woman?' he said. 'He really said this to me!' Pimenta tells The Athletic. 'He didn't mean it badly (but) he was looking at me as if I had fallen from space. 'I was so angry. I wanted to tell him: 'Listen, you're sexist!' It was clear he thought I could not do this job. The reason it annoys me is because it shouldn't matter. If it didn't matter, nobody would ask. It means people still judge your worth by your gender as well. In football, it matters and it shouldn't.' Pimenta, who has recently become a non-executive director for Women In Football, an organisation that champions female talent to bring about change in attitudes to women working in the industry, is one of football's most influential figures and has previously been described as the most powerful woman in football. Born in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian became a lawyer and taught at several universities before working alongside the late football agent Mino Raiola at their One agency. Today, the company represents some of the sport's biggest names, from Erling Haaland to Arne Slot. They have also delved into women's football and represent three coaches and around 10 athletes — approximately 20 per cent of their client base — including Spanish World Cup Esther Gonzalez and Misa Rodriguez, as well as the talented United States teenager Lily Yohannes. GO DEEPER Lily Yohannes a year after USWNT commitment: 'I have so many more goals I want to achieve' Pimenta believes the game can be a platform for much larger conversations about equality and opportunities for women and wants to use her platform in men's football to further the causes of women's football. 'The platform of this company is being used by our female players,' she says. 'When we talk to those in women's football clubs, we come with a history, a track record. I think that is also elevating the space for women. The goal is to give them as much space as possible.' Advertisement As an agent and lawyer, Pimenta, speaking via video call from her office in Monaco, has witnessed the different landscapes of men's and women's football. 'It is so hard to become a footballer when you're a man,' Pimenta says. 'It is even harder to become a footballer when you're a woman.' Unprompted, Pimenta brings up Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Spanish Football Federation who was found guilty in February of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent during the World Cup final medal presentation. 'If I'm a world champion, you have to endure Mr Rubiales kissing you when you're taking your medal and the whole disgrace,' says Pimenta. 'Imagine if Messi just won the World Cup and Infantino (Gianni, the FIFA president) kisses him on the mouth. That's inconceivable. This would never happen. 'When you're a girl or a woman, you need to be scared that this may happen. And if this happens, maybe it also backfires on you. Not only do you have to be abused, but also public opinion will abuse you all over again. 'I am very passionate about it because I want to make them (female players) feel safe, that they can be what they want to be without the added risks of being a woman in this industry.' Pimenta rattles off other issues she wants to address. 'I am also speaking out about sexualising women,' she says. 'They are footballers. They are athletes. They are not soccer Barbies. They are not there because they're beautiful. They have great bodies but that's not the point and should not be the point. 'When I follow some social media or the way some people are using the image of women, it goes towards: 'Oh, let's make it sexy.' It's not about being sexy, it's about performance on the pitch. You should feel safe that you're being watched for what you do on the pitch, not for how you look. There's a lot still to conquer in the sense that women need to be safe.' Growing up, Pimenta never perceived sexism in Brazil. But when she came to Europe, it was plain to see. 'I never thought of myself as being inferior to men because that's not how I was raised,' she says. 'If you're good, you're good. If you're not good, you're not good. I would go back home and say: 'They find it weird that I'm a woman. Why does it matter?'. I actually felt the doors were being closed when I got to a place (Europe) where I thought doors would normally be open.' Advertisement As she worked with clubs negotiating clients' contracts, Pimenta realised women did not have a seat at the decision-making table. 'But I saw many women in clubs at the time,' she says. 'They were doing the whole job or a lot of it. They were the men's support system in the decision-making positions but they would not wear the hat. The hat would belong to the men, the credit would go to the men. I thought: 'What's going on here?'' One of the first women she met in football was Marina Granovskaia at Chelsea. 'I found it amazing — this is a normal woman, she's capable and she does what she needs to do. I was always impressed by her because she could break this barrier of sexism that I felt in Europe.' Men have supported her in the industry, though. Pimenta cites Milan's former chief executive Adriano Galliani and, in her words, 'super super agent' Jonathan Barnett as inspirational figures. Despite Barnett being retired, Pimenta still talks to him a lot: 'He was breaking barriers and speaking up for his players.' Pimenta previously told The Athletic that a football director said to her in a meeting, in front of a player and his father, that she is Brazilian so they thought she was a 'hooker'. That incident is etched into her memory. And she says her gender is still 'very relevant' to clients today. 'It matters to players and their families,' she says. 'When you work with the player, there are always 10 people who want to take this player from you.' Pimenta has heard these people saying: 'Yeah, but she's a woman. Are you sure she knows what she's doing? Are you sure she's up to it?' It's people who have never done a transfer in their life.' Pimenta has had players wanting to work with her, only to be pressured to change because she is a woman. 'It matters for players, it matters for clubs, it matters for the media. It does matter and it shouldn't. That is the point.' On the flip side, she recently had a female player's father specifically asking for a female agent because that would put his mind at ease. Asked if being a woman in football has helped her in some way, Pimenta says: 'I think so. If you look at the glass half-full, yes. If you look at it half-empty, no.' 'So many women have been mistreated, downplayed, humiliated and abused in this industry that when they see a woman who is doing something at that moment that gives a sense of empowerment, they will help me. Advertisement 'I have had situations of women helping me from inside clubs. They should not have but they did because they were happy to see a woman there. Maybe not because it was me, but probably because they have had so many bad experiences. They want to see a woman succeed. 'I probably shouldn't be saying this but I'm talking about having access to information that you shouldn't have. One time I was leaving a club, I passed by the secretary room because usually the secretary is next door to the decision-maker. The girls are here, the man is there. I'm on the way to the toilet and the secretary says to me: 'Go to the second one. The contract is there.' 'Somebody slips a phone number in my bag when I'm passing by, or they call me to tell me something that they shouldn't. This is girl power.' Pimenta feels her biggest strength is putting her clients' interests first. 'From the moment you either think it's about you or your interests, you have lost it,' she says. 'If you think of the client's interests and you make sure the client thinks of football and not about money, everything goes right. I have been doing this for 35 years now. It always does.' A small figurine with blonde hair, a sky blue shirt and the No 9 on its back stands on the corner of her desk. In January, Pimenta struck one of football's most monumental deals and the longest in English football history when Haaland signed with Manchester City for nine-and-a-half years in what Pimenta describes as a 'dream come true'. 'There is the football dream and there is my dream as an agent to do beautiful deals,' she says. 'It took a lot of time to build. From everybody involved: City, the player, family. It's a work of art. At the end I was like: 'What a beauty.' 'We were so happy to achieve this because there was no tension. There was an ambition, there was a will. How do we get there? You would bump into a dead end and another but then let's fix this part, let's add this layer to the document and the discussion.' Advertisement The ambition was always a 10-year deal but the contract had been finally agreed upon at the end of December and, given City announced the deal on January 17, many reported the new deal as lasting nine-and-a-half years. 'It's so annoying to say 'nine-and-a-half years'. But in the end, that's what it was. To put our thoughts and dreams into words, it takes time. Dammit, I wanted to call it 10 years!' Asked why it was so long, Pimenta replies very simply: 'If I want to send you a message that I love you, I marry you. I don't date you. How can you express love bigger than marrying you? 'That was the goal. To express what this partnership with this club really means. If it means something, let's put it on paper and celebrate. Let's be loud about it. We sent a message: we hold hands and we will grow into something that is bigger than it is today. It takes time. There are ups and downs and good and bad moments but we're here for each other.' The length of contract had a business angle too. 'If we're able to pass a message to supporters, stakeholders, sponsors, to the ones that who look at this project long-term as something that is planned long-term, it allows everything that comes with it to get organised. That lets us achieve bigger things.' The contract was one of the most lucrative, too, but its exact worth was never disclosed. 'And it never will be,' adds Pimenta. Bubbling away in the background was also the fact City were, and still are, accused of more than 100 breaches of the Premier League's rules. They deny these charges. 'I think that would be a conversation that enters my lawyer hat,' says Pimenta when asked if the charges were discussed during Haaland's negotiations. 'And that's not something we should be talking about.' According to Pimenta, there is 'more space for the human being' in the women's game, whereas the men's game treats players purely as assets. 'If you stop being human, you lose the passion,' she says. 'You might as well use robots to play football. If we kill the passion and do it for the money, it's dead. Nobody will watch football anymore.' Advertisement When Pimenta speaks to a club, it is usually about a transfer, a problem with the coach or the player's physical condition. 'Today, it has become impossible to say to a (men's) club: 'A player needs to be transferred because he's unhappy.' If you're unhappy in your job, this should be the biggest reason for you to leave.' Pimenta is fully aware of the different factors at play: the price, commitment to sponsors, supporters and finding a replacement player who will cost more than a transfer fee. But she believes 'a club cannot be sensitive to the players' needs anymore. They used to be. That's when I shout very loudly: we need transfer rules. 'The rules in place today are not good enough. A rule that says a player can have a transfer clause and then a club comes to you and imposes a transfer clause of €1billion (£841m, $1.1bn), this is not a transfer clause. This is just accommodating your request. 'The problem is I'm the only one that is interested in clear rules for transfers. If you're a club, you want to be able to say: 'You leave when I want, you don't leave when you want.' But this is becoming a real problem in football. 'Thirty years ago, if I were to go to a club director or owner and tell him: 'I know you like him and need him but he really needs to leave, his time is over here,' they would find a solution. Today they don't. '(A club says): 'This is the price. If you bring me this money, he goes. If you don't, training starts tomorrow.' That's not OK. I know people will say: 'They're well paid, why should they do whatever they want?' That's not the point. 'In my company, I imagine people are well paid. If they come to me and say: 'I want to go because I found a better job, I want to live in another country because my husband or my wife got transferred or my kid has a problem at school and I want to go to another city,' they just go. In football, you're not allowed. This is becoming a big, big problem.' Advertisement Pimenta thinks this will become more of an issue in women's football as more money enters but, for the time being, clubs are more willing to compromise. 'If we don't get a clear set of transfer rules, this will explode,' she warns. 'What is it? Do you want slaves?' Pimenta believes who makes these rules — FIFA, UEFA, the federations, national governments or the clubs — is irrelevant given everybody should be involved in the conversation. 'When we had the (Lassana) Diarra sentence, everybody started to question what happens to the transfer system now. Nobody wants to implode the transfer system. It's part of the game. It needs to exist for this activity to be sustainable for clubs. I understand that but we also need a bit of fresh air in the system to clarify what are the rules of this game, the game of transfers so that the players don't end up as hostages of the clubs. 'As the summer transfer window approaches, I already know players are very nervous: 'I need to leave. I need to leave. I need to leave.' Maybe we end up in the summer, as I've experienced already, with players crying in their home, literally crying because they cannot go. I'm not sure there's enough interest in the football industry to address this matter. 'Money should always be talked about. I don't want you as a club not to make money. I just want balance. I want balance for the player.' Football in general has an issue with financial sustainability. And women's football, which is a young growth market, is not immune to that. Pimenta is certain the women's game can be a sustainable, monetising business. 'If the fans are interested, the rest will follow,' she says. Over the years, income has increased but so has debt. There have been concerns that transfer fees and salaries in the women's game are rising while core foundations are yet to be solidified. Advertisement 'It is fair enough to have this conversation, as long as it is not just a disguise to not increase women's salaries,' says Pimenta. 'Women's football needs to be sustainable. So let's invest in football pitches, the structure, the data but not on the salaries? The girls need to eat. 'I understand the need for investment, but please, when you look at the salaries, sometimes you play for a very big club and you can hardly make a living, let alone prepare for the future. 'It's very smart of club owners to make the female players feel guilty about talking about their salaries. Sometimes they can make it look like it's either developing the game or increasing the salaries. Why can the two things not co-exist?' Pimenta continues to question the status quo, whether that be in the men's or women's game. 'If all of us in men's football gave our attention to women's football and shared that space, that would be important. Women's football is a tool to empower girls. If we all make women's football a bigger sport we will be indirectly helping communities and cultural change.'
CBS News
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Steelers hosting second annual "SteelHERS" Social this weekend at Acrisure Stadium
When it comes to NFL fan bases, the Steelers frequently come to mind as one of the biggest, but did you know that it's made up of 60% women? It's true; the Steelers have one of the largest female fan bases in the NFL, and this weekend, there's a chance for all of you to get together and celebrate your passion for this team. The second annual "SteelHERS" event will be held at Acrisure Stadium, and it's a great opportunity to meet some current players, along with other like-minded women who love football and the black and gold. "We like to think of it as if you are a girl or a woman who has a passion for football, we want to help you find your place in the sport," said Cecelia Cagni, Steelers Director of Corporate Communications. "Whether that's through Girls Flag, or the Women of Steel platform, and this event this weekend." For the diehards, it's a weekend when dreams can come true and memories can be made. "Everything exceeded my expectations when I got to meet Troy Polamalu, who is the one player who has escaped meeting me somehow," said lifelong Steelers fan Susan Shirey. "I really enjoyed it, I had a 'Here We Go' friendship bracelet, we got on the field, we got to take some passes, and we really enjoyed it." The event is set for this Saturday at Acrisure Stadium from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. and it will include locker room access, X's and O's with current players and coaches, a yoga session, photobooth, giveaways, and more. You can check out more details on the event, as well as purchase tickets, on the Steelers' website at this link.
Forbes
15-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
PEBE Utilizing Small Business Program To Revolutionise Sports Bra World
Lucy Horsell (right) with her allocated Women In Football mentor Helen Hardy, founder of Foudys Lucy Horsell, the co-founder of PEBE sports bras, is one of a number of female entrepreneurs utilizing a bespoke Women in Football and Xero Small Business Program - Empower, Mentor, Succeed. Named after the much-used phonetic sound of the acronym for a 'Personal Best', PEBE was founded in 2021 by Horsell together with Charlotte Gill. They now have seven staff and spend much of their time working with county Football Associations, professional sports clubs and visiting schools, running fitting sessions and workshops educating young girls. Their Gravity Sports Bra was ranked number one for overall control of movement in an independent study by the University of Portsmouth, scoring higher than 435 sports bras designed by major global brands despite having only a fraction of their budget. PEBE's mantra of 'driven by science, created by women' is all about ensuring women feel comfortable in their bras, not just when they play sport, but throughout their life to enable them to always perform to the best of their ability and reduce the risk of suffering from health-related conditions later in life. Horsell was at Wembley Stadium last week attending the latest session of a Women In Football and Xero program designed to assist female entrepreneurs with a comprehensive package of support. She explained to me the unique challenges of managing breast movement which studies have found could mean breast tissue bounces 11,000 times during a soccer match. 'We design our bras to look at what we call women's breast bio-mechanics. So how do women's breasts move, when we move? I always use the analogy of imagine how a woman's ponytail swings when a woman runs - that's the momentum which is going through her body. In particular, looking at that natural movement in that figure of '8' is really key for things like ACL-injury risk.' 'We have created a patented contoured layer that deals with the three directions of movement, we have a really strong fabric that anchors the weight properly onto the torso and adjustability that allows for bespoke fit, allowing for varying heights and fluctuations in breast volume. As a result we rank as number one for performance.' When Chloe Kelly scored the winning goal for England at the UEFA Women's Euro in 2022, her iconic celebration put sports bras on every front page in the country. But while most saw the moment as a liberating one for women, Horsell saw it as another instance of a female playing top-level sport without the necessary support to perform at her best. England's striker Chloe Kelly celebrates after scoring her team second goal during the UEFA Women's ... More Euro 2022 final football match between England and Germany at the Wembley stadium, in London, on July 31, 2022. - No use as moving pictures or quasi-video streaming. Photos must therefore be posted with an interval of at least 20 seconds. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) / No use as moving pictures or quasi-video streaming. Photos must therefore be posted with an interval of at least 20 seconds. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images) 'I watched that moment,' Horsell told me, 'like everybody in the country and leapt out of my seat with delight, and then quickly retreated back into my seat with my head in my hands thinking 'she is not supported'. It's a really good example of women coming second in terms of kit and ultimately compromising.' 'In that moment, Chloe is not going to be thinking, my boobs are hurting, I'm moving around. She's probably ignoring it a little bit, and focusing on that goal. We now know through scientific research that her breast movement will be impacting her performance and will definitely not be feeling comfortable for her. She's probably shoe-horned herself into a bra that's squished her down, that will be affecting her respiratory capacity, affecting her in loads of ways that she's not going to acknowledge.' In a recent interview, the vice-captain of the Lionesses, Millie Bright admitted she had played for years managing constant pain in her shoulders due to ill-fitting sports bras. Such was her discomfort and her reluctance to speak out, she played throughout the last two major tournaments for England wearing two bras underneath her shirt. Horsell was not surprised having heard those kind of stories from many of the women she has fitted. 'We have had so many examples of women whether military personnel and marathon runners, or those working hard to get and stay active, who have back and neck complaints and the moment you fit them properly you just solve it. If they are wearing something that isn't fitting them right and their breast tissue is being pushed down and they'll round their shoulders into that. They are going to live with natural challenges with their posture.' 'Whether you are running towards a goal or you are sitting at your desk, the positioning of your breast tissue is really important, so is how you breathe. Humans are typically terrible breathers, if women are in a really tight sports bra, their breathing is going to be even worse. If they are in a sports bra that is too big, which is really common, we find that they puff their chests almost to counter for the size of the bra. The result of that is on their whole abdominal engagement. We talk to women about their pelvic floors, we live in a world of wild pelvic floor dysfunction. Anything we can do to help women engage properly internally is such a huge win for them." The Gravity Sports Bra by PEBE Horsell tells me how the PEBE sports bra is different to others currently on the market. 'One of the things that our bras have is this 10cm drop adjustability on the front. What that allows us to do is to fit our bras for different frames. If you look at the Lionesses, for example, even if all those women measure the same bra size, they are all going to wear it completely differently because they have all got different torso lengths and all women have a natural position of their breast tissue on their bodies.' 'If we live in a world where we are just squishing everything down, that's not solving any of those performance challenges. Often brands are very happy to talk about the right sports bra and what it can do but that's one of my biggest frustrations. We know that a well-fitted sports bras can improve stride length, it can improve acceleration by 7%, it can reduce ACL injury risk, and then have an abundance of product that is often untested, and unless well-fitted is not actually solving that problem." 'Unless you are loading that mass properly onto the body and fitting that sports bra for that woman - and being able to adapt it for her fluctuations, so you're not just solving that problem for one day of the month, you're solving it for everyday of the month - then you are not fixing what we know to be the challenge.' The New Zealand-based firm, Xero, has been an official FIFA Women's Football and England Senior Women's team partner since 2022. As a small business management platform they have dedicated much of their sponsorship to supporting not only women in sport but also the small businesses that support them. Emilie Watts, the Head of Senior Brand and Marketing Manager at Xero explained to me how the company's support for the Women In Football and Xero Program came about. 'Xero's purpose is to make life better for small businesses. We saw that there was this opportunity to represent the historically under-served communities and that is definitely women in business and women in football.' 'The partnership with Women In Football was really to establish a mentorship program so we could identify the small businesses and really help them build a community of support around them, put them in touch with each other, because sometimes it can be a really isolating experience being a small business owner. It gives them a bit more of a network to help them along.' The recent annual Women In Football conference allowed Horsell to approach the CEO of a major club to challenge them over their support of their female athletes. As a result, she has organised a fitting session for PEBE with their women's players. Horsell told me 'the team at Women In Football, and the people I've met, have helped me navigate the world of sport, I would have drowned without them. How partnerships work, how to speak people, meeting people like major CEOs - that has come through being in the right rooms with the right people around me.' Horsell has met some of the success stories from the initial cohort of the program in 2024, including Kelly Newton, the founder of Nixi Body who encouraged Horsell to join the course. 'If we stick together, we have a voice, standing alone in our own little silos, we'll drown and the world won't change for women.' To find out more about Women in Football and join our 11,000-strong network click here
BBC News
26-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Female footballers might need 'different pitch type' to cut injury risk
Brighton chief executive Paul Barber believes female footballers might need "a different type of pitch" to reduce the risk of says the club are exploring the safety of various surfaces as part of plans for a purpose-built stadium for their Women's Super League are finalising an agreement on the chosen location for the ground, which will be close to the men's team's Amex says he is "convinced" surfaces built for men's football can be a contributing factor to injuries sustained by female players and has called for more are preparing their own research, likely to be in partnership with local universities, to ensure the surface of their new women's pitch is suitable."If pitch surfaces are contributing, is that because we are preparing them for male athletes?" Barber told BBC Sport at a Women In Football event."We are starting to pull together a brief. If we're building this pitch and investing that kind of money, it makes absolute sense to get it right."There has been a lot of coverage recently on the quality of surfaces women's footballers have been asked to play on and for us, the whole basis of building a women's stadium is to show as much respect to the female athletes as we do to the men's."That should include the quality of surfaces as well. That is from the base point of how they are built to how they are surfaced and prepared on match days." Stadium to feature breastfeeding rooms and baby changing areas Barber says the new stadium will provide facilities catered towards women's football fans and will be more the facilities will be breastfeeding rooms, baby changing areas and 'buggy parks' for prams to be stored."In most football stadiums in our country, we don't have [those facilities] because they were not built for female athletes or an audience that follows women's football," said are yet to receive planning permission for the women's stadium but are "inching towards the final piece of the puzzle"."We have a location that we are now finalising with the landowner. It's complex because of where it is, who owns it and how it's got to work," Barber added."We're really excited and it's something we're really committed to delivering. We've always said we wanted to be as close to the Amex as possible."Logistically that means we can share resources there like groundstaff, machinery and equipment for example. It will be closer to the Amex than Brighton's city centre." Relegation, investment and FFP The Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) are currently proposing several changes to the structure of the women's game with the aim of helping to grow will be asked to discuss and vote on any proposals at their quarterly shareholders meetings - one possible change would be the temporary scrapping of relegation from the Women's Super says it is not something Brighton's board have addressed but he welcomes proposals for change."I think it is right that the WPLL are looking at every single avenue to accelerate the growth of the women's game," said Barber."If that means we need to give owners more security in order to invest faster, we have to consider that. I'm not saying it's right or wrong - but just that we need to have every argument on the table."Barber said WSL clubs "understand" they will endure financial losses for a period of time as they invest in women's football but added that they must look to make it sustainable."The most important thing is that we are investing in the right things to turn around that position in the not-so-distant future because we can't just run women's football clubs at a loss forever," he added."That doesn't make any sense for anyone and isn't healthy for aspiring future female athletes who want to come into an environment, be paid properly and looked after."We have to create a business that is sustainable for the future."Asked whether he would welcome Financial Fair Play regulations in the WSL, Barber added: "I think it's a balance of not constraining investment but at the same time not accelerating losses. It's so difficult."The key thing is learning as many lessons as we can from the men's game so we don't lead football clubs into more precautions positions. "I would expect in the new governance bill, that in time, there will be more parameters around spending [in the WSL]."
